Since the seemingly overnight emergence of ChatGPT, businesses everywhere have been buzzing about generative AI’s impact, particularly on process efficiency and workforce productivity. While the benefits in those areas are indeed transformational, we’ve been struck by how consumers and their perceptions and experience of AI have been largely sidelined in the conversation. Similarly, we see immense opportunities for GenAI to unlock growth, a frontier of AI transformation many businesses haven’t yet reached. 

That’s why we’re launching a study to explore: 

• What are consumers doing with GenAI today, and why?  
• How will GenAI affect them?     
• What are their plans for the future? 

The “tl;dr” on Our Initial Findings  

While the quantitative research is still underway, we wanted to share initial findings from our qualitative sessions because we think the implications are potentially profound. Specifically, we see clear evidence of the rise of AI-powered consumers who are moving faster, doing more and expecting more in terms of fast, frictionless and individualized offerings. They seem increasingly ready to turn over more of their lives to AI, are watching brands’ commitments to ethical AI, and are deeply invested in finding even more ways to benefit from it.  

Thus, firms looking to spark sustainable and transformative growth with GenAI will likely need to accelerate their plans to get ahead of – or even keep up with – the most creative-minded early adopters and power-users. That’s especially true for firms in retail, CPG, hospitality, financial services and healthcare, which are in the vanguard of GenAI adoption. We hope the insights in this article help you connect the dots between your AI strategies and the emergence of the AI-powered consumer.  

What Consumers Are Telling Us 

As is always the case with new technology, consumers have diverse views about GenAI. There are power users actively adopting GenAI across many facets of their personal and professional lives and more passive and cautious adopters. Tinkering is the norm for many in the middle. Each of these groups exhibits different uptake and usage patterns. There is also considerable nuance in their attitudes toward AI ethics and responsible adoption by businesses.  

Despite these distinctions, the initial phases of our research yielded evidence of five meaningful patterns in consumer adoption of AI.  

1. All Types of Consumers Are Moving Surprisingly Fast  

Conventional wisdom says that businesses are leading the way on AI, but our research shows that consumers are moving faster than many companies realize. When talking to us about AI, consumers used their own terms and definitions. They clearly see the value of the apps and tools they use and do not feel overwhelmed by AI’s complexity. That’s true of even the slower and more cautious adopters. Natural language processing – and voice integration – are of great interest to all types of users, because they make GenAI tools feel more accessible than the digital tools and platforms of the past.   

• What consumers say: “With AI, I don’t have to go down the rabbit hole of Googling my ailments but can have a conversation. It says, ‘it could be this’ and I say, ‘no, it’s not that.’ That’s better than having to read and read. AI scans for me and has a conversation,” said a somewhat frequent 60-year-old user.  
• So what: Because consumers are moving fast, there is urgency to identify new ways to engage with AI-enabled experiences that map to consumer needs and preferences. 
• Who’s doing it right: Colgate-Palmolive is leveraging AI to improve consumer experiences across the journey – from enhancing search with AI, to personalizing creative, to rapidly prototyping and testing product innovations.   

Consumers are using generative AI tools before, during and after purchases.

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2. Beyond Personal Productivity, Consumers Prioritize Creativity, Fun and Inspiration

Productivity is a big part of AI’s attraction. But our research shows that inspiration, shopping and fun are other major motivations to use GenAI. One consumer told us about how he enjoys creating AI images on his phone and sharing them with friends.  

• What consumers say: “When I’m on the bus, I will click over to [an AI image generator] and put in some words and just play around for 15-30 minutes,” said an occasional 30-year-old user.  
• So what: For businesses, creative AI-driven marketing activations and experiences can boost engagement by creating joy and delight.  
• Who’s doing it right: Warner Bros.’ Barbie AI Selfie Generator allowed users to design their own unique Barbie. Reaching 13 million users in just a few months, the generator was a hallmark of Barbie’s world-class marketing campaign.  

3. Consumers Have Strikingly Specific AI Aspirations

That old paradigm “if I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse” may be less applicable as modern consumers become more tech savvy and have easy access to powerful tools. Consumers don’t necessarily grasp the technical fine points or legal guardrails about AI; but they are pretty clear about the experience they want.   

• What consumers say: “If I could enter what I want to eat and if my fridge could use AI to analyze the ingredients I have, what I need from the shop, and then build a shopping cart I can review and order, that would be great,” said a somewhat frequent 65-year-old user.  
• So what: Because consumers are imagining new ways to use AI, they can help imagine and co-create breakthrough applications as part of clearly defined innovation processes.  
• Who’s doing it well: Coca-Cola’s Creations platform provides a space to engage consumers and capture their input for new product innovations. The Y3000 Flavor of the Future was created by leveraging consumer insight and the power of AI to drive engagement with Gen Z, the brand’s growth target.  

4. In the Eyes of Consumers, ChatGPT is Only the Beginning

The first killer app of the GenAI age, ChatGPT is incredibly powerful for consumers and among the most popular and frequently used apps. But consumers hope to use many other applications in the future, largely because they see the limits of ChatGPT; as one consumer told us, “It only takes me so far.” In fact, they are looking for more nuanced, bespoke answers to the questions they need. 

• What consumers say: “I’ve tried things like ChatGPT for trip itinerary planning. It’s helpful but doesn’t get that detailed. If I want to know details like the safest place to walk around as a woman, it can’t give me that yet,” said a high-frequency, 23-year-old user. 
• So what: Consumers want more precision, meaning businesses can develop bespoke solutions based on proprietary data and look to deliver on unique brand promises. Build, buy and partner – depending on the use case, each of those approaches can be viable.  
• Who’s doing it well: Via a partnership with OpenAI, KAYAK used its historical travel database to train GPT-4, the large language model. The goal is to help users find travel experiences meeting their precise needs.  

5. Consumers Are Paying Attention to How Businesses Talk About AI 

Consumers told us they want to hear about AI, but within preferred contexts and applications. If an experience is piloting or experimenting with AI, consumers appreciate a call out that it’s AI, and that it’s “still learning.”  

Some consumers are annoyed by “overly promotional” language about AI; they are looking for authenticity and transparency instead. We also heard about the importance of brands communicating their commitments to use AI in ways that align to the organizational purpose and values – clear evidence of consumer interest in AI ethics.  

• What consumers say: “I’m thinking about what brand do I want to support with AI? Who is investing and being thoughtful in terms of protection and checks? And which firms are brazenly advancing and not so worried about protection?” said a high-frequency 23-year-old user. 
• So what: Because consumers are paying attention, brands should be deliberate in crafting intentional, authentic messaging around AI, presenting it in the moments that matter. The focus should be on explaining brand intentions and providing helpful and transparent guidance. For more ways Marketers can use AI, see our Four Ways to Maximize Value  
• Who’s doing it well: S&P Global is taking a holistic approach in positioning its brand for the age of AI. It’s developing an AI brand narrative linked to its company purpose, designed to resonate across its wide array of audiences. From there, it’s integrating clear, consistent messaging across all of its brand communications and experiences that stem from that positioning. 

Ethics Matter on the Road Ahead 

Discussions of AI are incomplete without mentioning ethics. And, according to our research, all types of users – from cautious adopters to more pragmatic users – have AI ethics on their mind. The common theme is that ethics and brand intentions matter, though they will influence decisions differently in different contexts and for different users. Consumers aren’t just blindly adopting every GenAI app; rather, they are thoughtfully considering and – in the case of power users – calculating where they want to spend their time and engagement. 

Imagine a world where multiple AIs work in the background to find bargains, negotiate better prices for consumers, and make smart purchase decisions. Or where personal assistants connect accounts and act on consumers’ behalf across financial services, healthcare and other sectors, particularly with those companies that have cultivated trust with their AI deployments.  

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Chiaki Nishino: Given the disruption of the last few years, marketers are often asked to take on greater accountability to demonstrate immediate impact and ROI of marketing investment while creating tighter alignment with the business outcomes. Has that been your experience? If so, how have you shifted your strategy to show impact?  

Theresa McLaughlin: It is a very interesting time to be the global head of marketing especially when considering the evolution of digital transformation. When I was at TD Bank Group, the organization’s investment in third-party digital increased from 5% to 50%. Now it’s shifted to first-party digital investments.  

When the digital transformation first began, it wasn’t about brand storytelling but performance marketing. It quickly became a competition of performance marketing versus brand marketing. And that probably needed to swing in this direction to ensure there was a return with performance marketing investments.  

But when COVID hit, the proliferation of content in the media became intense, and organizations needed to shift to build more authenticity.  

Given all I have seen, I’m a big believer in brand and demand. I want to ensure that my budget in brand, individual business unit marketing and incremental campaign budgets are all looked at through an integrated model of brand and demand. Ultimately, I want to drive the brand into the product experience and the performance marketing strategy.  

CN: How have conversations with your C-suite and board changed as you take on new accountability in driving and proving business value?   

TM: There absolutely is pressure to demonstrate ROI, but as the global head of marketing, my job is to lean into storytelling. For example, we pull together the story and data in the right way, to show how we are influencing the full-funnel experience for our target audience and clients.   

When communicating the brand investment, I lean into classic upper and lower funnel brand metrics, but brand is about what clients say it is, not what we tell them. Therefore, metrics like NPS really matter when talking about the brand experience. I expect tough questions from across the executive team, so I lean into data to tell the story that proves marketing’s ROI. What got us here is not going to get us there, which is why we are making the case for brand investment. 

CN. How do you partner with other internal business units and teams to unlock new opportunities for driving growth, and how has this evolved in recent years?   

TM: T. Rowe Price is a global organization, so sitting within that global distribution organization is essential.   

When partnering with my sales organization, I’ll start by standing up with the sales management team and collaborating on initiatives such as lead management, product marketing and positioning, and RFP management as just a few examples. Cross-functional leadership is crucial not just for marketing but to deliver better business outcomes that truly meet the needs of our customers.  

CN: In our research, we found that effective marketers work to build modern marketing organizations and experiment to win. Do you have any examples you can share where you’ve been able to implement these two principles effectively?   

TM: At T. Rowe Price, every part of marketing is in a constant state of transformation, which is why the principle “experiment to win” resonates with me. We have many opportunities and playgrounds where we can test and learn new strategies and techniques, and our team’s new talent has upgraded our approach to experimentation.   

In terms of building a modern marketing organization, getting your operating model is critical. It is vital to take an integrated approach to the operating model. This is why it’s crucial to be a “T-shaped marketer” who can play a more fluid and integrated role within your organization. To build an integrated marketing org, about two-thirds of our team sit in the center, but a third sits in the business, so we avoid operating in silos and get greater connection points to move our marketing agenda forward with the buy-in from other functional leads.  

In my role, I often see myself as more than just the global head of marketing.  In addition to being responsible for marketing, I need to think about CX, talent, digital, sales, and lead generation – it’s true capital marketing. My role is often that of an integrator, and to do that successfully, I need to convince other functional leads – who aren’t marketers — to find points of collaboration. I often approach this like I would a marketing campaign. It’s all about creating seamless experiences that put the customer at the center of everything we do. 

About Chiaki Nishino  

Chiaki Nishino is Prophet’s president and a member of the organization’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. In addition to leading Prophet’s North American business strategy, she oversees the organization’s global Women in Leadership and Diversity efforts. She brings extensive experience in growth strategy, customer experience, brand strategy and marketing. She’s led clients in financial services, communication and healthcare to new avenues of expansion. And she’s an industry leader in customer engagement and marketing accountability, having spoken at the Conference Board and the Association of National Advertisers. Before joining Prophet, Chiaki was a Partner at Lippincott Mercer, and worked at Mercer Management Consulting and Dell Computers. Are you interested in talking to Chiaki? You can contact her here.

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“Never let a good crisis go to waste” may be old advice, but it feels timelier than ever. While businesses are still struggling to distill the ongoing lessons of the pandemic, they now see inflation, interest rate hikes and an ongoing war pushing the economy closer to recession. If that wasn’t enough, supply chain issues continue to disrupt and consumer confidence is fading. 

Companies are also challenged as they try to figure out if we are in the great resignation or the great retirement, and what that all might mean for the great hybrid experiment.  

A new norm has emerged: The only true business constant is continuous business disruption. 

Predictably, many businesses are already fearful, cutting budgets, freezing new hires and even laying off staff.  We are seeing this in our clients. Governments are getting involved in companies’ marketing spend. And chief sustainability officers wonder how best to pay for the commitments they’ve made over the past two years. 

All these issues are real and complex, and in some ways, it’s good to be on high alert. But businesses have a choice in how they respond, as they did in the economic crises of 2001, 2008 or 2020.   

Each downturn has produced new economies that did not exist before, from e-commerce to the sharing economy to the experience economy to the world of subscriptions and crypto. There’s a long list of companies that have been created by these downturns including Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, AbbVie, Spotify, Instagram, Bitcoin and Ethereum. Others, such as Samsung, GM, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Bank of America have been reimagined in ways that would be hard “to imagine” before these downturns. 

So, instead of talking about crises, cutbacks and retrenching, we are choosing to use words like resiliency, durability, agility and radical innovation, as we guide clients through this latest challenge. We know growth can’t happen amidst panicky cost-cutting or short-sighted pivots. 

No one enjoys downturns. But we can see how our clients in the past have channeled anxiety into strength and resiliency. They evolve. They make intelligent choices and emerge stronger than the competition. This is a moment to leapfrog and discover ways to accelerate, creating an opportunity to differentiate companies from competitors and create net-new businesses and categories, customer experiences and offerings. 

To this end, here are five ways we are advising clients as they strive to build their own versions of relentless resiliency. 

Accelerate Purposeful Leadership 

In the last two years, purpose-driven companies have become the norm. COVID-19 triggered an unprecedented number of companies to go out, find their North Star and align to a higher-order purpose. These past few years have shown leaders that doing good in the world, doing right by employees and customers and making money can all work in concert. Now is not the time to throw all of that goodwill and equity away.    

Purpose-driven companies are forcing leaders to become more agile, transparent and even a little vulnerable. The radical communications door that opened during COVID-19 needs to stay that way. The entrepreneurial spirit that allowed companies to reinvent how they did business has to continue to thrive. The agile strategies that respond to a changing environment must become the norm.  And, importantly, with a strong purpose in place, they can make hard decisions through a values-based filter. Steps to take now: 

1. Invest in purpose-driven growth moves. Remind teams that downturns always open white space opportunities for those that are looking “between the cracks.” Encourage teams to continuously search for the next big thing. What will be the crypto or sharing economy of 2023? How might it align with your purpose? How will it move you forward? And, importantly, how does it pay off your purpose? Assume your competition is doing the exact opposite. 
2. Be ruthlessly transparent. Agility is important, but moving too fast can cause whiplash, confusing employees rather than inspiring them. A change in direction and purpose alignment can’t just be clear to leadership–it must be evident to all teams and employees, as well as customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.  Be vigilant, strong and consistent in your communication approach. 
3. Accelerate brand, demand and innovation efforts. Discretionary spending is generally first to go, yet, we have seen in the last three recessions that companies that kept their foot on all of these pedals have come out stronger on the other side. On the innovation side, widen the acquisition aperture. Start-ups and small companies might currently be more open to acquisition discussion, and can immediately fill in offering and experience gaps at a lower price point. On the brand and demand side, it’s easy to fall into the false dichotomy that companies must tradeoff between brand or demand marketing. However, you need both. And there must be a real partnership between the two disciplines often most at odds—sales and marketing–to figure out the right mix today and tomorrow. 

Leverage Employees as Your Greatest Competitive Advantage  

There are many reasons the employee base is so fragile right now. The great resignation, the great retirement and many of the experiments coming out of COVID-19 are still in motion. Many companies will use recession nerves to back off employee engagement efforts. If they haven’t yet focused on their employee value proposition (EVP), they may think they can let it slide.  

This is a big mistake. Like many other companies, Prophet just went through a talent war like few others we have seen. There is no reason to think that will change on the other side of this downturn. 

The current economy is making employees increasingly uncertain about the company-employee contract, despite all the employee engagement skills businesses have built through COVID-19. The EVPs just re-launched at many companies will be thrown into disarray. Pragmatically, if personnel cuts need to be made, it must be done through a strategic lens, tying back to the company purpose. Steps to take now: 

1. Choose programmatic and initiative cuts over personnel reduction. We are still in the early days. And just as the pandemic sparked supply chain issues and are still causing mayhem (just peek in a Target or Walmart warehouse), so too will the labor shortages many are experiencing on a daily basis. 
2. Encourage cross-functional teams. New research from Prophet finds that 63% of companies with higher cross-functional collaboration skills say it increases employee satisfaction scores, and 54% say it boosts retention. People want to work with one another. 
3. Poke at pain points. Hybrid workforces are in their infancy, and there is much to be done to make the experience more fulfilling. Is commuting grinding people down? Are they stressed by after-hours e-mail? Do they have Slack or Zoom fatigue, and are there other tech solutions that might help? 

Make Budget Decisions Through the Experience Lens, not Just Organizational Constructions and Functions 

As mentioned, it’s natural for companies to consider cuts across the organization– in each function and business unit. In tough times, this often feels “fair”. Instead, decisions should be made using the experience point of view: What allows for the best customer and employee experience? 

Companies should take this opportunity to understand what is required across the functions to create differentiated experiences for customers and employees. This may require more granular cuts. And in every company, there are pockets within the budget that will always be spent, often in procedural and programmatic ways. That money may well be redirected to experience investments. Paused programs can always be restarted. Steps to take now: 

1. Create agility through experience pods. Many companies have already put smaller pods into place to boost agility. Put these newer teams to work differently, across functions and in ways that build customer or employee experiences. Create assignments that build connective tissue. 
2. Enhance collaboration. Break down silos and optimize spending by developing a more collaborative working model. Our recent research shows that while 80% of leaders believe collaboration leads to better outcomes, only 28% of hybrid workplaces effectively support it. And only 50% of respondents believe their teams collaborate effectively, even when they’re all in the same room. What are new ways to rewire traditional methods of working including budgeting, resourcing and product development? 

Harness the Investments Made in Technology  

Digital thinking continues to be the lifeblood of business. It drives everything from manufacturing to delivery to remote work. And technology accounts for trillions in business spending, including ongoing investments that can’t be reduced. The problem is that in most companies, this tech exists in ponds and lakes, with little ability to pull it all together.  

And in many, that single view of a customer–the dashboard we’ve all dreamed of–still doesn’t exist.  

If possible, it’s a good time to pause or slow new tech investments, reevaluating digital priorities. Any spending that improves customer experience should move to the top of the list. Steps to take now: 

1. Clarify customer journeys. Use the point of view of each customer segment to ensure existing technology adds value, eliminates friction and provides the right data for future decision-making. This includes mapping the tech to each existing critical process. Encourage teams to find greater optimization. 
2. Reconsider the employee experience. The right digital tools increase employee productivity and satisfaction, enabling the kind of collaboration that drives growth. 

Knowledge of Customers, Competitors and the Market Is the Only Superpower 

Stop guessing. When no one knows what lies ahead (and no one does), it’s critical to understand how customers think, behave and buy in real-time. And it’s just as essential to know exactly what the competition is doing. Amid so many economic changes, the rules of many categories are being rewritten as people and businesses alter their spending patterns. 

What’s required is a set of processes and mechanisms to gather as many insights as possible. This needs to be combined with a mindset that accepts the insights readily, with the willingness to adapt accordingly. No one knows exactly what is going to happen six months from now, but we need the skillset to collect and discern as much about the changing environment as possible. Steps to take now: 

1. Pulse the market. Invest in pulsing capabilities, then embed findings into practices and processes. This constantly feeds into new products, services, experiences and go-to-market approaches. 
2. Use insights to prioritize new investments. These insights may tell you that you do not have what it takes to be successful in an ever-changing world. Don’t be afraid to test and learn as a result, shifting investments as needed. 
3. Challenge team behavior. The hardest part of integrating insights into your business may be changing the behavior of team members to act on the insights. This kind of cultural shift isn’t easy, especially when people are frightened. While you may be cost-cutting, invest in the change required in your culture to drive agility in the organization. 

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We have been continuing to work on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here at Prophet and have have made steady progress since our last update. We know that achieving representation reflecting the communities where we live and work will take time. And we are also learning a lot when it comes to the importance of understanding the complexity of inclusivity. 

While some organizational practices need to be changed to be more inclusive, we are learning that it is at the micro, one-on-one level where change and impact are being felt most. When everyone at our firm understands and makes a habit of small acts of inclusion each day, we believe that change can happen at scale. 

Propheteers are very proud of our culture, and we should be. But as our inclusivity efforts have strengthened, we sometimes bump up against defensiveness. Even among those who are the most vocal about adding diverse representation, there’s a resistance, or perhaps better put, lack of understanding, to becoming more inclusive in our work.  

We are trying to reinforce that bias does exist here and everywhere. There is no organization where bias does not exist. And so creating a truly inclusive culture means looking at the day-to-day interactions that happen throughout the firm. These connections are the foundations of the employee experience. In each moment, they give people a sense of belonging, letting them know they are valuable members of the team.  

In other words, inclusivity has to be addressed at every level of interaction – macro, corporate level, team level and individual level. The quality of those interactions and the relationships that develop determine how well and for whom the systems are working. 

So far, we’ve found three focus areas that are especially helpful. 

Learning New Language

The ability to have DEI-related conversations throughout an organization requires a common language, and the evolving list of terms initially feels unfamiliar. A first step has been starting small group leadership discussions and introducing inclusion concepts through unconscious bias and allyship training. We’re proud that all of our 600-plus employees have completed this work. 

That’s only a start, though. It’s important to keep talking to translate ideas into individual and collective action. 

Tokenism is one example. Building an inclusive team means gender diversity should be represented. But if a partner asks a woman to work on a pitch just because she’s female, that’s not inclusion. Tokenism is just for show–it’s performative. On the other hand, representative teams are intentionally built because if the goal is cognitive diversity, we know that identity diversity is critical to adding a valuable perspective that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Who we are in the world shows up in how we think and navigate the world differently.   

As a practice, leaders should question “Am I building a team that is as representative as possible?”  Slowing down to process and talk about decisions that impact the way we work can open up healthy dialogues and lead to better outcomes.  

The right language takes these daily conversations from defensive to pragmatic, hopefully making them more productive.  

Reconfiguring Networks

Internal networks–often invisible and informal–are places of exclusion in many workplaces. Remote work has made this even more challenging. Do the people who choose to go into the office, for example, have more access to certain leaders and the chance to develop relationships, while those working remotely may not? Or do certain groups have an easier time interacting and building relationships in a virtual group environment than others?

Making Intentional Connections

We are creating strong employee resource groups, which make space for people to build community and find support. These include Black@Prophet, Pride atProphet, Latino@Prophet and Women In Leadership. And we’re constantly looking for new ways to bring people with shared interests together. We need to do more, though. So we’ve begun opening up opportunities to learn about our leaders and different parts of the company. 

How Inclusivity Needs to Change Our Work

We are focused on moving inclusion beyond awareness through group training and individual coaching. We’re seeking more actionable strategies that impact the way we work, including business development and other go-to-market practices. By setting expectations, mitigating structural bias, and role modeling small acts of inclusion, we know that we can create a firm with imperfect people and their biases that nevertheless contribute to maintaining a healthy and inclusive environment.  

We know that more inclusive teams lead to more innovative and varied approaches to our work for clients, from broader digital transformation strategies to more accessible user experiences. We are trying hard to make this a consistent way of doing business. 

There’s growing urgency to these efforts. Like so many other companies, our work accelerated with the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020. It continues to speed up, fueled not just by the increasing awareness of racial and gender disparities but also by the Great Resignation’s tailwinds. An inclusive culture is key to recruiting and retaining the best people–that’s true for Prophet and every one of the clients we work so hard for. 

So we’re not slowing down. We’ve intensified our planning, becoming more intentional. We’re leveraging strategic approaches within campus, lateral and executive hiring efforts to increase the diversity of the candidate pipeline and, ultimately, incoming hires. And we’re systematizing our process, creating a scalable program based on business rules, such as an Inclusion Rule for diversity on interview slates. We’re completing contract-bound pipeline requirements for external search partners. 

We’re looking to our data to understand employee experience across all diversity dimensions. And we’re using that lens across the board to help ensure that we support diverse teams to lead clients to the best solutions.  

The end goal? A Prophet where one cannot predict a person’s success based on how they look, whom they love or whom they pray to.  To get us there we’re working to clarify and communicate each employee’s role in DEI. We’ll know we’ve arrived when DEI is no longer seen as the responsibility of a handful of people but as a new kind of thinking and behavior each of us brings to work every day. 

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In today’s disrupted markets, incremental sales gains aren’t enough. Companies need to find paths to uncommon growth, moving them ahead of competitors and potential disruptors. That can only happen when businesses answer two daunting questions: Where can we play to win? And how can we win there in a differentiated and relevant way?

We help companies identify those growth paths, even as new entrants surge into already crowded categories and core products continue to get commoditized. Deciding where to play requires a clear sense of which market a company is best equipped to play in, and then uncovering gaps of opportunity and developing a razor-sharp definition of the customers it believes are its best targets. Figuring out how to win calls for finding the best products, services, experiences and business models to reach them.

“Companies need to find paths to uncommon growth, moving them ahead of competitors and potential disruptors.”

Once these areas are fully developed, we can start to apply both in-category expertise as well as out-of-category thinking, finding innovative and unexpected avenues to more revenue.

It’s tempting to take shortcuts. Many companies do, and some even stumble into growth that way. But for growth to be uncommon, which we define as purposeful, profitable, transformative and sustainable, every future move needs to start from the customer’s perspective. That means focusing on humans first, with a detailed and holistic understanding of what they want, need and expect.

From that point of view, it’s possible to design and activate new offers with the best potential to increase sales and build relevance. Our experience shows these four steps–answering the who, what, how and why of any new approach–is essential.

Step One: Who is the Target?

Companies often start their growth strategy thinking about what products they can make or services they can offer. Insurance companies want to dream up new policies. Restaurants want to launch a new sandwich. But the key to sustainable success is to understand who makes up the market landscape and which groups are the best match for its capabilities.

Intelligent segmentation and targeting may reveal certain insights that change your strategy. Maybe the most potential segment for your insurance company wants fewer policy choices but better service. Or maybe restaurant customers want more bowls and less bread.

We drive our segmentation and targeting strategies by balancing two key things:

• We make sure target audiences can be identified using demographics, media behavior and other transactional data
• We guarantee that the audience can be understood by uncovering behavioral insights

Often, companies already have much of this information. To define the most attractive and winnable target segments, we combine client data with third-party insights and our own quantitative and qualitative research.

These can’t just be numbers and ideas on a page, though. A vital part of this work is moving beyond rough sketches and bringing these people to life through powerful personas. Everyone in the organization needs to understand who these new customers are and what makes them tick. That way, they can get excited about the prospect of winning with them and finding new ways to meet their needs.

Step Two: What’s the Unique Value Proposition?

It’s not enough to crystalize an innovative growth strategy. Unless

There’s a compelling value proposition – a thing that makes an offer different from its competitors – it’s difficult to persuade people to try a new brand (let alone give up on one they’ve been loyal to in the past).

Too many companies gloss over this step, moving straight from strategy to messaging without deliberately defining the core benefits they offer. Until they take the time to painstakingly codify its virtues, the product, service or experience, is unlikely to break through the clutter.

This step is crucial in crowded categories. In a world with hundreds of financial products, seltzer brands and car insurance companies, the value proposition serves as a filter. It clarifies a company’s promise to customers and becomes an internal rallying cry.

Step Three: How Should it Go to Market?

The pivot from product innovation to in-market thinking is almost always challenging. If these new ideas are to lead to uncommon growth, it’s pretty likely that they are different from previous launches. That calls for a departure from the company’s usual way of doing business. Maybe they’re reaching different customers, like a newly defined target. Or perhaps they’re serving existing customers in different ways via new channels. That often means that the right go-to-market strategy will require operational shifts. And it may even require changes in the company’s culture.

For example, how will the new offers be distributed and sold? How will they be marketed? What is the best channel to leverage for go-to-market? What’s the messaging? It takes careful alignment of all these elements to maximize success.

Step Four: What’s the Best Way to Define the “Why” (With Purpose and ESG)?

Environmental, social and governance strategy is still a relatively new discipline, and many companies continue to view it simply as a risk-mitigation tactic. We believe that’s a missed opportunity. When intertwined with a company’s purpose –its reason for existing in the world – ESG is a powerful way to create value. And it can lead to meaningful and sustainable engagement with multiple stakeholders.

It’s not easy to define precisely how the world has changed over the last few years. An endless news cycle perpetuates negative outlooks on health, climate and communities. And people increasingly expect the companies they do business with to play a role in helping solve these problems. Businesses that accept that responsibility, making sure everything they do fits credibly into their ESG strategy, will win their respect.

At Prophet, we believe building a purpose-led organization is the key to achieving uncommon growth. But we also know simply articulating and communicating purpose is not enough. To create value, purpose and ESG must act together, providing a golden thread across the organization. In this position, at the center of all activity, it can drive transformation.

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It’s been a tough year for many women. The pandemic exposed how much support working women can use–and how shockingly little most receive. COVID-19 has sparked a “she-cession,” driving nearly three million women out of the labor force. And roughly one in four are considering quitting or downshifting. Even those dedicated to staying at work are paying the price. A new Stanford University study found that endless Zoom calls amplify longstanding gender dynamics and drive fatigue and exhaustion for women.

This situation has led to Prophet renewing its commitment to elevating women’s voices and finding new ways to build allyship with our colleagues, clients and communities. And we have reexamined what it means to support women at the firm.

Prophet Initiatives to Better Support Women

Over the past year, we’ve made several moves to provide better support to the women of Prophet. From fueling open discussions about the pandemic and social unrest to welcoming honesty and vulnerability – we’re creating a workplace where women can feel supported while reckoning with the emotional intensity of these events. Ways we’ve advanced our cause in the past year include:

Finding Flexible Forums

For decades, women have struggled to elevate their voices in large meetings. Video calls can make being heard even more difficult as it is hard to read body language and easy for users to get lost in the sea of squares. We’ve acknowledged this reality and have encouraged teams to take “pauses,” moments for women to speak, weigh-in, and have their voices heard.

We’ve established new virtual forums. Our weekly firm-wide “Pulse calls” bring our global community together, while smaller breakouts allow the space for everyone to share and contribute their thoughts. We’ve introduced one-on-one meetings through our Women in Leadership Mentorship network and small-group sessions to discuss and share around specific events, such as the recent targeted murders of Asian women in Atlanta.

Building Better Boundaries

Workplace disruption related to COVID-19 has created a burnout problem. A CNBC survey found that 65% of women believe work stress has worsened and more than half feel burned out. Lean In’s research shows women feel this exhaustion at up to twice the level as men.

As remote work blurs the lines between our professional and personal worlds, Prophet’s leadership team has tried to help build boundaries between the two. These are some of the ways we’ve offered support:

• For the last several months, Prophet’s offices have closed on the last Friday of the month to provide employees with a dedicated time to rest, recharge and take a break – without having to return to a full inbox of items to respond to.
• We’ve offered benefits that provide meaningful relief to parents, including a dependent care assistance program for households with children ages 0-13.
• We’re improving parenting-specific policies, including offering more paid leave for parents.
• And we’ve invited health and wellness experts to speak to our people on topics from setting boundaries to managing the challenges of remote education.

Unleashing Shared Passions

Despite spending the year physically apart, we’ve seen a surge in community building. Propheteers have demonstrated their care for listening, learning, and taking action through their participation as a member or ally to the firm’s employee resource groups like Women in Leadership, Pride at Prophet, Black@Prophet and Latinos at Prophet.

These groups have allowed our people to speak up and share what’s on their minds (both personally and professionally), educate peers on topics of passion, and reflect on recent events in the news. And these communities have created opportunities for associates at all levels to take on leadership roles and elevate their voices.

“We’re creating a workplace that women can feel supported while reckoning with the emotional intensity of these events.”

Some of these topics and discussions can be heavy, so we’ve looked for ways to brighten our days too. We started our first-ever Music League, which connects Propheteers through a shared passion for music, specifically the tracks that celebrate the different identities that make up our firm. For example, over Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, Propheteers around the world submitted their favorite songs to playlists like “All the Singing Ladies,” “Motown Classics,” “Songs from Women (Or About Women) Who Shaped Our World,” which highlighted female artists who’ve made a substantial impact on the music industry.

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In the last year, between a renewed focus on racial injustice and the reality of a global pandemic, we have been challenged on our perspectives of ‘business as usual’ – including what we consider great leadership. We believe this is an opportunity to embrace – and prove – that a different way of leading is here to stay and we’re better off for it.

It is well-documented that we perceive leadership traits to be either more masculine-coded or more feminine-coded. For example, we associate being collaborative, cooperative or nurturing as feminine-coded, while being analytic, authoritative or ambitious is more masculine-coded. This “coding” has led to bias that has not historically supported women advancing in leadership. Amongst other things, this is because traits that are more traditionally feminine-coded, while seen as advantageous, are viewed to be “bonus” or “plus-ups” for leaders, versus being the core attributes required for success.

“In times of crisis, we look to our leaders for trust, compassion and collaboration— leadership dimensions that are all feminine coded.”

Enter the era of COVID, where we suddenly saw traditional models of leadership upended. The pandemic environment is highlighting the tremendous, and even mission-critical, benefit that more feminine-coded traits bring to the table. In times of crisis, we look to our leaders for trust, compassion and collaboration— leadership dimensions that are all feminine coded. (For more on this, there are many research studies to be found, but here and here are a couple of notable ones).

This might be why we have seen so many articles with titles like “Why Do Women Make Such Good Leaders During COVID-19?” But closer inspection shows us that it’s not just female leaders, it’s all leaders—regardless of gender—that are finding success in the current pandemic by exhibiting these historically feminine-coded traits.

No matter our gender identification, we can, and should, all lean into these more historically feminine-coded traits to have a critical impact. We see examples of this all around us right now, and they offer blueprints for better, more effective leadership:

Trust

Driving trust through transparency and focusing on facts have already been critical to strong leadership. However, a demonstrated comfort with uncertainty is one dimension of trust that has revealed itself at this moment. Gone are the days of defining leaders by their total certainty in what’s to come—vulnerability might, in fact, be the new marker of confidence.  From German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s science-led explanations (that still acknowledge what’s unknown) to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s plainspoken Facebook briefings to San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s calm, early response, we find enormous comfort in a focus on known facts with a transparent acknowledgment of what we don’t know.

Compassion

During an election season filled with pain and uncertainty, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden showed compassion and empathy at each turning point. They found ways to connect with voters over a shared sense of loss rather than just focusing on what the Biden administration would do if elected. And by speaking so candidly about their tragedies, Biden was able to impact compassion, empathy and resilience as a human first,  and as a leader second.  Regardless of what political affiliation, he created a level of connection through this in a way perhaps historically “strong” leaders may not have and gave a sense of hope from the top-down.

Collaboration

Our historical views of a strong leader probably more often emphasized being a lone warrior, but it’s a willingness to listen to many different voices and to bring teams into decision-making that is providing comfort and calm in this environment of unknowns. Synchrony CEO Margaret Keene (long known for her inclusiveness) has explicitly noted how leaders must solicit and listen to many voices to successfully navigate the crisis. You can see her doing this, looking to external expertise to inspire and support her bold decision making, bringing in outside mental health support for employees and holding weekly company-wide calls with an infectious disease expert. She’s both leading the way and working with others to do so.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has been commended on the company’s handling of their recent layoffs. And in it, we can see elements of all of the above. He provides the facts about what went into the decision-making, and also, the unknowns remaining. He demonstrates empathy for his team and the pain this situation brings. And he builds and strengthens his community, calling on everyone to work together to support the exiting employees. He is leaning into all of these more feminine-coded traits to be a strong leader.

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Prophet entered 2021 with a firm commitment to diversity and inclusion. This included growing our beloved employee resource groups, or Prophet “ERGs” for short. Making up the fabric of our culture, these groups are dedicated to education and community-building – ultimately fostering a workplace where colleagues across identity groups feel valued, heard, seen and supported. They also demonstrate what it’s like to “Enjoy the Ride” at Prophet, where everyone is encouraged to bring their whole selves to the table.

Over the past couple of months, thanks to our Black@Prophet and Women in Leadership ERGS, Propheteers across the globe got to participate in (virtual) programming to honor and celebrate Black History Month, International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

Celebrating Black History with Prophet’s New ERG – Black@Prophet

Black@Prophet was welcomed to Prophet’s ERG community in February and kicked off their activities with a variety of Black History Month content. Given the diverse backgrounds of the group, they felt it was important to shine a light on Black history and culture from a global perspective. Black Propheteers shared how Black history has shaped our world and dove deeper into topics like the creation and evolution of historically Black colleges and universities, supporting black-owned businesses and the untold history of some important Black heroes.

Prophet’s Music League also dedicated February to spotlight Black music artists. Propheteers submitted their favorite songs for categories such as “All The Singing Ladies” and “Black Voices Around the World.” Each Friday, Propheteers started their days jamming out to songs new and old – contributed by their colleagues. Since Black History Month, Black@Prophethas been planning “Listening Sessions,” which will be dedicated time for the community to knowledge share, develop programming and resources for Black employees and their allies. Also, already in the works? A celebration of Juneteenth.

All month long, Propheteers used special Zoom backgrounds highlighting important Black leaders – including Kizzmekia Corbett, Lebron James, Stacey Abrams, John Legend and Matthew Cherry.

WiL: Choosing to Challenge with Prophet’s Women in Leadership Team

In recognition of International Women’s Day, Propheteers participated in the #ChoosetoChallenge campaign and also spotlighted incredible women who are continuing to challenge the status quo across the globe. As part of the celebration, the Women in Leadership team partnered with the Black@Prophet and Pride at Prophet resource groups to write internal blog posts that highlighted the important intersectionality between these communities.

To spotlight changemakers across the globe, the Women in Leadership team collaborated with our Direct-to-Consumer vertical to highlight women-led brands that are dominating their industries while creating change along the way. The blog series also covered topics like allyship, perceptions of the glass ceiling and young female activists.

Over the coming months, Women in Leadership will continue to empower and promote women across the organization through Prophet’s internal mentorship programs, group discussions and by supporting other employee resource groups’ programming.

All month long, Propheteers enjoyed another set of specially-designed Zoom backgrounds highlighting important women leaders – including Greta Thunberg, Ozlem Tureci, Angela Merkel, Naomi Osaka, Amanda Gorman, Kamala Harris and Rachel Levine.

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For several years, Prophet has been working hard to strengthen our commitment to diversity and inclusion. Pride at Prophet, a group celebrating and building a community around our LGBTQ employees and allies, is flourishing. While we still have a lot to do, we’ve accomplished much with our Women in Leadership effort as our junior partner team became more gender-balanced. But as Black Lives Matter protests swept the globe in May last year, we knew we had to take a new–and harder– look at our own community, culture and practices.

As we absorbed what was happening around us, we closed firmwide for a Day of Reflection in mid-June and then listened to how each of us as team members at Prophet thought about how we can better reflect inclusive and diverse voices and embed them more deeply into our processes and our culture. Since June, we’ve continued these conversations as we’ve gone deeper into our DEI work at both the local and global firmwide levels.

“It’s about challenging ourselves to make sure every solution we create for ourselves and our clients–every brand strategy, every customer experience, every organizational analysis–moves toward a more just and open world.”

We also conducted a global firmwide DEI survey to better understand our current realities and perceptions and where we most needed to focus first. With broad engagement across offices, levels and functions, the survey gave us a detailed view of how we can further become truly diverse, equitable and inclusive. While we were moving in the right direction with the work done so far, we knew we had to do more.  We asked ourselves how we can better deliver on the promise of one of our values – to allow everyone to be “fearlessly human” creating the room, structures and space to bring their best selves to work every day.

So, we got to work. We made the effort more immersive and transparent. While a committed DEI Council continued to push on efforts, we aimed to make the dialogue and actions broader and more local – to fit the needs of each of our geographies. We started to push on existing processes where we can better embed the core principles of our DEI efforts.

We know that this is hard work and it is something that must be sustained. We want change to be meaningful and it is important to make this not just about hiring more people of color or donating money to a charity.  It’s about challenging ourselves to make sure every solution we create for ourselves and our clients–every brand strategy, every customer experience, every organizational analysis–moves toward a more just and open world.

In this context, we can share that we are focused on some key areas:

Increase Expertise

No one knows better than we do that the right consultants can change everything. Even though a super passionate internal team has headed our DEI efforts, we knew we could benefit from professionals with deep experience and fresh insights. We retained Collective, specialists in DEI consulting, to help.

Together, we’re looking at new and better ways to engage our people, support their development, and recognize their achievements. We expect to have a full report on its recommendations soon, and this audit will help further refine areas in which we can make progress.

We are also in the process of identifying and hiring a Head of DEI, who will be 100 percent dedicated to this vital work – a first of its kind at Prophet.

Enhancing Our Definition of Diversity

Including more diverse voices in our team has always been a goal, but we are stepping up those efforts. First, we’re working harder on campuses, adding historically black colleges and universities to our regular recruitment outreach. We are also partnering with the Consortium, a nonprofit that promotes inclusion among MBA students.

We launched senior-level searches to diversify the executive team and at the partner level. And we are actively interviewing candidates for our Board, with additional outreach underway.

Overall, as part of our recruiting process, we’ve made sure that at every level, across every role, we have a diverse slate of candidates.

Learn More, Do Better

Awareness is an essential part of this process, and during the fall, almost 90 percent of Prophet employees have completed microaggressions training to understand better the many ways bias can affect the Prophet community members. Importantly, this training also addresses what people can do about it–either when they make a mistake themselves or witness one.

From there, we are now beginning to deploy our next employee training focused on becoming better allies to our coworkers, with the aim to have everyone go through the training in Q1.

Support Racial Justice

In addition to our internal work, we are excited to be doing more to promote justice externally. In September, we also activated Prophet Impact (formerly P4NP – Prophet for Nonpofit) with a racial justice track that identified areas where we can do more pro-bono consulting with organizations dedicated to the fight for equality. Our intent is to make this ​a regular program rather than an opportunistic one, with clear budgets, goals and active management.

Measure Progress

All of this requires us to measure our progress and we all know metrics matter. The DEI survey we conducted has not only served to inform areas of focus but also to create a starting set of metrics for us to measure ourselves against. It probed four primary DEI dimensions–respect, belonging, evaluation/progression and commitment, and captured demographic information, now on our intranet, to track progress on representation. This data is feeding and informing our plan for the new year and beyond.

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As challenging as 2020 has been for marketing executives, it’s also been an accelerator of change. Amid pandemic disruptions, many companies found ways to reset, making fundamental–and often overdue–changes in their marketing organizations.

Those resets have opened doors to opportunities. As we help our clients map out 2021 marketing plans, we see important new ways for marketing to continue to enhance and even transform its role in accelerating a company’s growth.

We see several shifts that present a rare opportunity to develop the kind of marketing organization many people have been aspiring to work in, and lead, for more than a decade. These changes are built into marketing plans now and will sharpen focus and create more impact in the year ahead, as well as serve as building blocks for long-term growth.

Important Focus Areas for CMOs Developing Their 2021 Marketing Plans

Blur the Lines of Marketing

The best CMOs understand that solutions lie beyond their own departments and functions. The first wave of alignment has traditionally been marketing and sales, and more recently, deeper coordination with corporate communications. Increasingly, we also see CMOs building into their marketing plans integration with experience, tech, digital and HR teams. That’s because a genuine cross-functional approach is no longer nice to have, it’s essential for growth. While marketing may have responsibility for its plan and budget, leaders must see how collaboration with other functions is critical to the company’s success.

Elevate the Insights Function to an Operating System

As adept as many companies have become with transactional customer analytics and data, CMOs are keenly aware that insights often lag behind the accelerated pace of change happening across industries. That means plans are always a few steps behind what’s going on with customers right now. The pandemic, especially, has triggered profound changes in people’s behavior, making the need for constant pulsing imperative. Marketing leaders need a system that combines transactional customer analytics with current insights on human, consumer and user attitudes and behaviors.

Develop New Digital-Selling Strategies

Marketers can add value in the long term through brand reputation building, but they also need to play the critical role of generating leads and demand. Luckily, sales teams aren’t just welcoming this change, they’re pleading for it. Unable to jump on planes or meet face-to-face, salespeople need new digital tools, content and tactics to nurture every step of the sale. While there has always been a desire to push marketing and sales together, the pandemic is realizing the true merge of these two functions.

“A genuine cross-functional approach is no longer nice to have, it’s essential for growth.”

And, while this is certainly true for direct-to-consumer sales, an even larger opportunity for marketing is in B2B transactions. These customers, who are also enthusiastic digital consumers, are hungry for seamless solutions to procurement problems. By helping sellers answer that call, marketing has a rare purview to transform the selling process.

Create a New Talent Strategy

Finding the right people to run these intensely cross-functional operations requires a new approach. CMOs need to hire people who can look inside marketing and beyond, quickly jumping into a sales or product or experience or a tech conversation. And it’s likely recruitment efforts won’t be enough, at least to answer 2021’s pressing needs. What gaps can be filled by hiring? Partnering with other organizations? Upskilling? Even an acquisition?

Build-in Quarterly True Ups

CMOs need to be lighter on their feet than ever. Plans must be dynamic, allowing companies to be more responsive to shifts in the market and adjust in real-time. And this flexibility needs to be embedded in the day-to-day fluctuations of the company’s core businesses. Thorough scenario and contingency planning are mandatory for each goal and objective to be ready and responsive, with closer tracking of brand and sales performance.  Dynamic planning, responding and acting will now become the new normal for marketing. At the same time, making smarter tradeoffs in the near-term will be part of the secret sauce for reframing marketing’s role in driving a long-term growth agenda.

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Even before the pandemic, chief marketing officers had been navigating a complex and shifting digital landscape. And due to COVID-19, according to Gartner 76 percent of marketing leaders expect to be working with drastically reduced budgets. While some may view that as a doom-and-gloom scenario, we see it as an opportunity.

The CMO role is more important than ever, playing an essential part in guiding companies as they respond, reignite and reimagine themselves in a post-pandemic world. Here are four shifts we see as urgent priorities for CMOs today:

1. Accelerate Digital Transformation

Marketing leaders have long known, of course, that customers are shifting to digital across the entire journey. But the resiliency and dexterity shown during stay-at-home orders provide dazzling proof that customers are ready for much more than they’ve been given credit for.

The current disruptions in all parts of the value chain create breakthrough opportunities for digital to drive success in marketing and customer experience. They can stoke demand, build relationships, optimize customer data and predict channel shifts.

Yet many digital transformation efforts leave CMOs outside of the decision-making circle. The upcoming State of Digital Transformation report from our Altimeter research team finds that CMOs only “own” 4% of digital transformation efforts. CMOs can play a greater role by supporting the corporate digital transformation agenda in any manner they can.

2. Continuously Fuel and Feed Customer Insights

To determine how to win, CMOs need to understand their customers’ needs–and accept that much of what they used to know is no longer true. Continue to collect and use customer data to augment existing market research, address market uncertainties and go one step further to create an insights engine. Look for new ways to capture more information on how customers and intermediaries are feeling and behaving. That intelligence will add value not only in marketing but through the entire enterprise.

Nike is a powerful example. While it built its reputation with great products and relevant marketing, business growth is powered by digital insights that it embeds into every part of the company. Its Nike Direct division hasn’t just fueled sales. It provides data on fast-changing tastes and preferences, informing decisions in everything from innovation strategy to product design to community building. And it’s led to breakthroughs like the Nike Fit app and the 30-day wear test.

3. Build at Two Speeds

To succeed, CMOs need to throw themselves into two-speed thinking. First, they must adapt and innovate marketing and sales to meet the short-term realities of business in this radically disrupted environment, while also planning for things that drive return in the long run like purpose and customer experience. The second speed requires reimagining different scenarios and which bets will be successful. Armed with customer insights and investments in digital, it can be done.

“Even as the world waits for a “new normal” to emerge, reinventing marketing for immediate challenges looks different for each company.”

Even as the world waits for a “new normal” to emerge, reinventing marketing for immediate challenges looks different for each company. According to our State of Digital Transformation research, the majority–64%–of companies say revenue has fallen since the pandemic began. And for 15% overall, the drop is significant. For these companies, marketing is all about restarting the engines. But a lucky 17% have seen revenues increase. And while that’s nice for now, they face short-term challenges in retaining those new customers.

Starbucks has been perfecting the art of operating at two speeds. Short-term, it is taking advantage of its mobile app and loyal base to keep relationships and drive growth. For the longer term, the company is revising the experience for both customers and employees, investing in new drive-through stores, pick-up windows and better machines. All will allow Starbucks to continue to increase and meet demand.

4. Re-Define and Re-Execute your Brand Purpose

Purpose, a brand’s reason-for-being, means so much more today, as consumers demand better corporate behavior. They want to buy from ethical companies that are trying to do the right thing. They expect businesses to be empathic, responsible employers–and recent events have shown us they are willing to walk away from brands that mistreat people. And while they’ll forgive many missteps, they expect transparency.

Amazon, for example, has come under shareholder and employee fire for its refusal to disclose how many workers have contracted COVID-19. In response, the company went beyond mere words, committing an astonishing $4 billion–about a quarter of its annual profits–to make Amazon workers safer and fulfill its mission.

“Providing for customers and protecting employees as this crisis continues for more months is going to take skill, humility, invention and money,” founder and CEO Jeff Bezos says in its statement. “If you’re a shareowner in Amazon, you may want to take a seat, because we’re not thinking small.”

It’s not enough to be trust-worthy. Consumers expect companies to make an impact on society. They want assurances that the brands they buy are protecting people’s health and the environment. And they want to see them promoting social change, such as addressing racial bias. Procter & Gamble, for example, had already established itself as an outspoken advocate for social justice. As a result of recent protests, it stepped up its commitment with a $5 million pledge and compelling new content in its “Take On Race” challenge.

Building a New Action Plan

To act on these new priorities, recalibrate marketing plans. Accept that these are no longer annual documents, but works-in-progress to review monthly, if not weekly.

Make sure plans…

• Get ahead of budget cuts. Do more with less, re-evaluate marketing ROIs, setting up more frequent reviews to challenge assumptions.

But more importantly…

• Show marketing as a value creator. How can marketing contribute to the organization versus being seen as a cost center? How can it use brand purpose to increase relevance?
• Create or recalibrate a continuous customer insights engine, to understand shifting customer needs. How and when should the CMO initiate new market pulsing?
• Ensure the production of intelligent content, relevant to the moment, contextualized for the consumer.
• Make sure operating models can execute data-driven test-and-learn efforts.
• Audit the marketing technology stack to make sure the best moves are automated.

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